Educational Technology-Individual Development Plan (ET-IDP) for MK (not that MK, the other one):
Since he is a tech teacher, he is always looking for ways he can integrate his content with the content of other classes in a fun and meaningful way. Part of my problem is that he doesn't understand enough of the other curriculums to effectively integrate. Goals for coming year:
Learn GIMP
Learn Office 2007
Learn Adobe Premiere Elements
Learn CSS for Web Design
Increase proficiency in applications already known: Sony Vegas, Java (Eclipse, Blue J), Fireworks.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Monday, June 30, 2008
Pre-After-Ed
Sahngyoon, John, and I have combined forces to add our POV to the After-Ed forum. Our Ten Things list concerns the application of blogs and wikis in Asian school - Korea, Japan, and China, respectively.
We've split up the 10 with 3 each, then we'll meet to flesh out our ideas and come up with a tenth.
My three: (Did you know...)
1. Blogs and wikis are routinely blocked in China, just mention T**wan, T*b*t, or Tian**man Squ*re and the whole blog or wiki network in in jeopardy of being blocked by the Great Firewall of China. Hence, Blogger, PBWiki, WordPress, etc. are practically useless from a publishing point of view, but the old "This site cannot be accessed" makes for a fine teachable moment.
2. In spite of censorship, international schools are often at the vanguard of educational technological integration. Hong Kong International School and her sister schoo, Concordia International School Shanghai, are using a home-grown course management and social networking system with campus-based servers, featuring a built-in blog engine and wikis on the way. With a keystroke, students and teachers launch and maintain blogs for personal forums, discussion forums, and digital portfolios.
3. English may be the dominant language of the World Wide Web, but other languages are growing in popularity, with Chinese sites growing at a tremendous clip.
4. The Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004 severed the main fiber-optic cable that connects East Asia to Europe and North America. Internet access slowed to a crawl as the remaining cables had to carry the normal traffic. The cables were repaired over the course of the spring and continue to improve. The Tsunami was a wake-up call that our footprint on the earth is fragile and digital divide can be broadened in a heartbeat.
We've split up the 10 with 3 each, then we'll meet to flesh out our ideas and come up with a tenth.
My three: (Did you know...)
1. Blogs and wikis are routinely blocked in China, just mention T**wan, T*b*t, or Tian**man Squ*re and the whole blog or wiki network in in jeopardy of being blocked by the Great Firewall of China. Hence, Blogger, PBWiki, WordPress, etc. are practically useless from a publishing point of view, but the old "This site cannot be accessed" makes for a fine teachable moment.
2. In spite of censorship, international schools are often at the vanguard of educational technological integration. Hong Kong International School and her sister schoo, Concordia International School Shanghai, are using a home-grown course management and social networking system with campus-based servers, featuring a built-in blog engine and wikis on the way. With a keystroke, students and teachers launch and maintain blogs for personal forums, discussion forums, and digital portfolios.
3. English may be the dominant language of the World Wide Web, but other languages are growing in popularity, with Chinese sites growing at a tremendous clip.
4. The Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004 severed the main fiber-optic cable that connects East Asia to Europe and North America. Internet access slowed to a crawl as the remaining cables had to carry the normal traffic. The cables were repaired over the course of the spring and continue to improve. The Tsunami was a wake-up call that our footprint on the earth is fragile and digital divide can be broadened in a heartbeat.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Last Week/Next Week
We composed i-Images last week. The "i" stands for idea. My idea has to do with faith. I had an image in mind, the lone demonstrator stopping a row of tanks in Beijing, June 1989. As Suhasini, Monique and I talked about our ideas, Suhasini mentioned her idea to build an image around Faith Can Move Mountains, and from there we decided to prepare a series of images exploring implications of that phrase. They'll be posted at a later date.
In the week ahead, Sahngyoon and I will be putting together a broadcast for After Ed that has something to do with use of blogs in language arts in Asia. Watch for that to take shape. We need a third contributor.
In the week ahead, Sahngyoon and I will be putting together a broadcast for After Ed that has something to do with use of blogs in language arts in Asia. Watch for that to take shape. We need a third contributor.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
That was the word in Yenan, China, July 1937
I don't often find myself quoting the Great Helmsman, but as I read what's going on politically west of here, and as I examine how technology transforms pedagogy, something Mao Zedong said is particularly apt:
If you want to know the taste of a pear, you must change the pear by eating it yourself.... If you want to know the theory and methods of revolution, you must take part in revolution. All genuine knowledge originates in direct experience.
If you want to know the taste of a pear, you must change the pear by eating it yourself.... If you want to know the theory and methods of revolution, you must take part in revolution. All genuine knowledge originates in direct experience.
TIP Conclusion #1
Writing on a blog doesn’t feel like learning, yet students are enthusiastically and energetically engaging in the Writing Process.
When students were asked questions about their feelings toward posting their own writing, commenting on others' writing, or reading others' comments, they were overwhelmingly (91%+) positive . Most students do not recognize blogging as the Writing Process, however, as evidenced by survey responses to direct questions about revision and peer review, which indicate a negative effect from blogging.
This finding is perhaps best explained in this student’s comment:
for the question ‘The blog helped me think more about what I was learning in class’ I disagreed, because when I was posting or commenting on the blog, I didn’t feel like I was really learning, although I actually was. I felt more like writing an article for a newspaper, and it was really fun, rather than like strict learning.
One-on-one interviews will clarify these findings.
When students were asked questions about their feelings toward posting their own writing, commenting on others' writing, or reading others' comments, they were overwhelmingly (91%+) positive . Most students do not recognize blogging as the Writing Process, however, as evidenced by survey responses to direct questions about revision and peer review, which indicate a negative effect from blogging.
This finding is perhaps best explained in this student’s comment:
for the question ‘The blog helped me think more about what I was learning in class’ I disagreed, because when I was posting or commenting on the blog, I didn’t feel like I was really learning, although I actually was. I felt more like writing an article for a newspaper, and it was really fun, rather than like strict learning.
One-on-one interviews will clarify these findings.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
The dust is settling
Everything seems to be all right on my end. Most of the kids really got into the blogging, and I think everyone did at least their assigned postings and commenting. I have to sit down and tally it all now. Mountains of data.
I assigned the kids one person to peer review for each of their postings, so I will give them a grade for that doing that. I think maybe 10 points for all 4 assigned comments, with a 10 (or 11) if they went over and above in their comments, and a 9 if they did all in an OK way, fewer points for fewer postings. I hesitate to grade the quality of their comments any more than that because it's new, but I'm being over-cautious. We also have a viewing media category in our LA grading, so I could weight it a little higher by considering it an LA skill (then I'm looking more for participation and less for content)
I will grade their short story final drafts, though, just as I would a "regular" short story assignment. I told them this ahead of time.
On the other hand, in the space of a year, some of my colleagues have gone from What's blogging? to treating it like a drop box for assignments, so the question raised is When do we stop using token grades and actually assess for content and form? I suppose that's a decent question for MAET Class of 2009 to consider in a TIP. Still, I'm not sure. Blogs are quickly becoming institutionalized on my campus, so it'll be interesting to see how they progress in the minds of teachers and of students.
I assigned the kids one person to peer review for each of their postings, so I will give them a grade for that doing that. I think maybe 10 points for all 4 assigned comments, with a 10 (or 11) if they went over and above in their comments, and a 9 if they did all in an OK way, fewer points for fewer postings. I hesitate to grade the quality of their comments any more than that because it's new, but I'm being over-cautious. We also have a viewing media category in our LA grading, so I could weight it a little higher by considering it an LA skill (then I'm looking more for participation and less for content)
I will grade their short story final drafts, though, just as I would a "regular" short story assignment. I told them this ahead of time.
On the other hand, in the space of a year, some of my colleagues have gone from What's blogging? to treating it like a drop box for assignments, so the question raised is When do we stop using token grades and actually assess for content and form? I suppose that's a decent question for MAET Class of 2009 to consider in a TIP. Still, I'm not sure. Blogs are quickly becoming institutionalized on my campus, so it'll be interesting to see how they progress in the minds of teachers and of students.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Busy in the Blogosphere
Oh my. What have I done?
My inbox is four pages long, chock-a-block with myConcordia notifications: "So-and-so has updated such-and-such's blog." This is great. I wasn't sure if kids would take to posting their story outlines and drafts on the class blog, but they seem to be universally enjoying it. Some of them seem to live online.
I'm staying out of it, having learned a lesson from people who try to micro-manage blogs. A couple kids are punching in HTML and tricking out their fonts and text colors, and I'm letting them. I'm glad they're taking ownership. More to the point, though, they are conversing about writing.
I'm seeing a growing sophistication in their feedback requests, from "What do I need to make it better?" transformed into "Is my climax too abrupt? Do I need more detail to make it plausible?"
I had a quick lesson in tagging today. Other than that, they're fairly blog savvy.
I've schedule a workshop session for them tomorrow, so I'll gauge their feelings for the kind of feedback their getting.
I'm nervous that everything they write is potential data, to be sifted and analyzed. I hope it's not that way. I hope that when the dust clears, some results will be apparent.
Am I the only one who feels overwhelmed?
My inbox is four pages long, chock-a-block with myConcordia notifications: "So-and-so has updated such-and-such's blog." This is great. I wasn't sure if kids would take to posting their story outlines and drafts on the class blog, but they seem to be universally enjoying it. Some of them seem to live online.
I'm staying out of it, having learned a lesson from people who try to micro-manage blogs. A couple kids are punching in HTML and tricking out their fonts and text colors, and I'm letting them. I'm glad they're taking ownership. More to the point, though, they are conversing about writing.
I'm seeing a growing sophistication in their feedback requests, from "What do I need to make it better?" transformed into "Is my climax too abrupt? Do I need more detail to make it plausible?"
I had a quick lesson in tagging today. Other than that, they're fairly blog savvy.
I've schedule a workshop session for them tomorrow, so I'll gauge their feelings for the kind of feedback their getting.
I'm nervous that everything they write is potential data, to be sifted and analyzed. I hope it's not that way. I hope that when the dust clears, some results will be apparent.
Am I the only one who feels overwhelmed?
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